Crazy Indeed?
by
, 12-27-2017 at 07:27 PM (2887 Views)
At the present time, we in the Prairies, are experiencing a bitter cold front that renders temperatures floating between -28 Celcius to -45 Celcius.... Yuppers. Bitter indeed.
But the silence in that kind of cold is unbelievable ... it truly is deafening when you go outside to that chill. I joke that I can hear a neighbor a mile away open their front door... but that is not far from the truth...
If you dress for this kind of cold, it doesn't bother you much ... except that your breath freezes your eyelashes such that they are frosty, if you are out for more than 15 minutes. Seriously. Dress in layers, it insulates you well. Trust me! Cars are plugged in if they have to sit more than a couple of hours unused.
Well enough about weather...
The week before Christmas, our church organist took a serious fall (ice from the deep freeze here), and cracked her pelvis. Oh no!!! Right before all the church happenings associated with Christmas festivities. Tuesday, December 19th, I got a call to see if I would take on the job of pianist (I am not trained on pipe organ playing) to oversee our organist's duties while she tries to regain her strength and get well. She is on a LOT of morphine, for obvious reasons.
YIKES!! Just a smattering of days prior to one of the biggest musical events of the year???? Sure, there were carols to be played, which of course I am familiar with. But there was a lot more music involved... some pieces I had not even heard of! Thank goodness for YouTube, let me assure you... I played some tunes back-to-back from YouTube for hours, just to gain familiarity... *sigh*
So on Wednesday, Dec.20th I headed to the grand piano at the church and began my four days of 4-hour practice. Grueling to say the least. Pleasurable, due to the exquisiteness of playing on a beautiful grand piano (*sigh* I can only dream of owning one someday...).
Bottom line is that everything did go smoothly. I felt like I was dreaming for that whole duration, my hands were literally sore from all that practice. And I now work weekly, performing the music for church services from now until the second week of February 2018. I feel so very bad for our organist ... she is such a mentor to me musically. And a really nice person. How awful that she took such a bad fall....
My husband and I hosted a Christmas dinner for 6 people. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes/gravy, meatballs, cabbage rolls, salad ... yeah, you get the picture. It was fabulous and it felt so darn good to be free of that tremendous pressure to learn music within a very short time. And my meal turned out wonderful ... for that, I am truly grateful!
I feel really bad about the homeless people during times like this -- I can only pray that they find shelter and meals during this very bitter cold snap! I plan to purchase "Hot Shots" (see this link: http://sunandsnow.ca/hand-warmers/ for more info) and hand them out to any homeless person I see at this wicked cold time.... it is the LEAST that I can do...
For all that are reading this Blog -- hope that your holiday, be it Christmas, or Hanukkah, or any other special festivity ... was so very special.... a time of good food, good memories, and time with your family, friends and special ones!!
Thank you so much for reading this blog,
Karalynne
*hugs*